Educational Testing and Schooling: Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action

摘要

Haertel has succeeded in provoking a discussion of the relationships between testing and schooling. Merton's (1936) concept of unanticipated consequences of purposive social action provides one lens for extending Haertel's proposal concerning seven uses for educational tests. We strongly agree with Haertel's call for action: With experience, such evaluation requirements might be elaborated and refined to the point at which serious attention to indirect as well as direct purposes of testing and serious attention to actual uses and their consequences, as well as to score interpretations, became an expected part of test validation. That will not happen overnight, but it is a goal worth striving for. (this issue) We agree with Haertel that serious attention and consideration be directed to the potential unintended consequences of the purposeful use of testing to improve schooling.